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Baldwin man charged with child porn possession

A Baldwin man remained in jail last week on a $10,000 cash bond after being charged with showing child pornography to a juvenile.

A preliminary hearing was held Jan. 9 for Andrew L. Roth, who is charged with two counts of child porn possession and two counts of exposing harmful material to a child. If convicted on one of the four felonies, Roth faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Judge Michael Waterman concluded at the hearing that Roth, 35, likely committed a felony and moved the case into trial phase. The judge also denied a defense request to modify Roth's bond to allow for GPS monitoring; Waterman let the original $10,000 cash requirement stand.

According to a criminal complaint:

St. Croix County sheriff's investigators received a referral from Child Protective Services on Dec. 4 stating Roth made a child watch sex-related videos and took pornographic photos of her.

The girl confirmed the allegations in an interview with a deputy, where she also said Roth touched her inappropriately.

"He would never leave me alone," the girl told investigators.

Roth showed the child porn videos on his phone, explaining to her "it was going to help her in life," the complaint states.

The child reported she learned Roth had also captured images of her. At one point she didn't realize it was happening until the flash activated on his camera.

The girl's mother said "little red flags" surrounding Roth's behavior with the girl never concerned her greatly because he "has always been strange." She said that changed after Nov. 20 when the child confessed that her nightmares were fueled by Roth's actions.

Officers spoke with Roth at his workplace in New Richmond, where he denied showing the child porn. Roth admitted he had recently been accused of masturbating in front of another girl, but said that was also a false accusation — he was looking at Facebook in that instance, he said.

Roth turned over his phone to investigators, who searched it and found a porn image depicting a child between the ages of 3 and 5, along with another child porn image.